The present invention relates to residential and commercial heaters. More particularly, the invention relates to improvements in heaters manufactured to have power ratings which may be selected at the time of installation.
The power requirements for a heater in a given location may depend on various factors peculiar to the location, such as the volume of the heated area and the electrical capacity at the location. To increase efficiency for the manufacturer and flexibility for the contractor, heaters have been manufactured with a plurality of heating units, for example including resistive elements, connected to an electric current source by selective couplings. Typically, these couplings are wire jumpers which can be attached and detached to connections at the heating elements by hand in predetermined patterns. The connection may be made, for example, by a clip that requires greater force to detach than to attach.
Depending on the jumper pattern, the elements are arranged, for example in series or parallel, with respect to the current source so that the heater operates at a predetermined power rating. In some arrangements, a jumper may be removed to electrically isolate one or more elements within the system. The jumpers are coded in some manner, for example by color, so that a contractor may easily arrange the jumpers in a given pattern provided in an instruction set to produce the desired result.